In the following essay, Schleifer investigates the narrative strategies of The Rainbow, and argues that the ending of the novel is "continuous with the work as a whole."

The last chapter of The Rainbow has generated a great deal of critical commentary. Critics who disapprove of the novel's ending usually argue, one way or another, that it has not been sufficiently prepared for earlier in the text, and those who defend the ending usually do so by attempting to demonstrate its continuity with what precedes it. In any case, the ending of the novel is of recognized importance, and Edward Engleberg, one of the defenders of the ending, puts most succinctly the issues which are involved [in PMLA 78, 1963]: